pillage
Americanverb (used with object)
-
pillages,
present (3rd person singular)
-
pillaged,
past participle, past
-
pillaging
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
pillages,
present (3rd person singular)
-
pillaged,
past participle, past
-
pillaging
present participle
noun
-
the act of plundering, especially in war.
- Synonyms:
- spoliation, depredation, rapine
-
booty or spoil.
- Synonyms:
- plunder
verb
noun
-
the act of pillaging
-
something obtained by pillaging; booty
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
pillagesimple
-
pillagessimple
-
have pillagedperfect
-
has pillagedperfect
-
am pillagingprogressive
-
are pillagingprogressive
-
is pillagingprogressive
-
have been pillagingperfect progressive
-
has been pillagingperfect progressive
Past
-
pillagedsimple
-
had pillagedperfect
-
was pillagingprogressive
-
were pillagingprogressive
-
had been pillagingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of pillage
1350–1400; Middle English pilage ( see pill 3, -age), modeled on Middle French pillage (derivative of piller to pillage, originally, to abuse, mistreat, tear, of uncertain origin)
Explanation
To pillage is a term of war that means to take everything of value from a place that you've conquered, but these days, pillage can be used to talk about anyone who takes what's not theirs. It wasn't enough just to win a battle. A conquering army had to pillage entire cities, taking everything of value that wasn't nailed down. Recently, several European families have won cases in international courts against museums displaying art that was looted by the Nazis during World War II. These families claim that the art was pillaged during the war and that, rather than being displayed on museum walls, it should be returned to its rightful owners.
Vocabulary lists containing pillage
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Words Every Pirate Should Know
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Born a Crime
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Stereotypes of violent Northmen, sailing to slaughter and pillage, long dominated representations of the Viking Age, the period from around 750 to 1050 when Norse raiders and colonists spread throughout Europe and far beyond.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026
In the UK the practice reportedly links back to the Viking pillage of Lindisfarne.
From BBC ● Mar. 6, 2026
“We’re not trying to pillage a bunch of officers from other agencies,” said Tim Oberle, an ICE spokesman.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2025
“We’re not going to sell to someone who is going to basically pillage the company,” she said.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 5, 2024
In days gone by, these men held Hypereia, a country of wide dancing grounds, but near them were overbearing Kyklopes, whose power could not be turned from pillage.
From "The Odyssey" by Homer
It has now been a decade since that distinctive riff on “The Shining,” and for Byrne’s third feature, he once again pillages from indelible sources.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2025
Around the ninth century, her remains were moved to the northern town of Downpatrick in hopes of avoiding the pillages of Vikings and others.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 26, 2024
The Empress controls the universe, and pillages the past for technologies to keep the universe safe from an alien species known as The Bleed.
From The Verge ● Jun. 15, 2019
She pillages but also suavely synthesizes art’s eternal images of women from the Renaissance to Futurism and beyond: from Madonnas, angels and queens to warriors.
From New York Times ● Jan. 26, 2017
In twenty years, thanks to that Code, which pillages fortunes under what they call 'Successions,' an heiress worth a million will be as rare as generosity in a money-lender.
From Modeste Mignon by Honoré de Balzac
The film -- with a high-voltage cast led by Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway, and produced by Universal -- pillaged earlier estimates that forecast an opening weekend haul of less than $100 million.
From Barron's ● Jul. 19, 2026
Third, it was safer to have capital loaned out than in reserve, where it could be pillaged.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 5, 2026
Thought to be almost 500 years old, this giant tree has weathered many storms and survived being pillaged for firewood in 1940s post-war Britain.
From BBC ● Mar. 20, 2024
Serrano spent his life alleging that he’d given Rulfo a manuscript of his poetry that was never returned — and that Rulfo had pillaged it for ideas.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2023
The Czartoryski Museum in Kraków had been pillaged.
From "Salt to the Sea" by Ruta Sepetys
Another, less grand perhaps, is the closeness of a community like Fairfax, where people volunteer their time to keep their facility open, while serial fraudsters are indicted for pillaging hospitals and overbilling the government.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2025
He also warned against "unhindered urbanisation" and criticised the "pillaging" of natural aquifers by the agriculture and construction industries.
From BBC ● Apr. 11, 2024
Eventually, however, humanity will have to get its act together and stop pillaging the environment in order to survive.
From Slate ● Oct. 23, 2023
And with that, Mandy Moore’s 1999 pop hit “Candy” blasts over the speakers, and the pillaging for pom poms and fringe begins.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2023
Stravinsky had mischievous fun pillaging music’s dusty back catalogue with the ballet Pulcinella for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company in 1920.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
